Kerala HC Dismisses Senior Advocate’s Plea Challenging Exclusion From Bar Council Electoral Roll [Read Judgment]

The Kerala High Court has dismissed plea of a senior advocate challenging his exclusion from the final electoral roll of Bar Council of Kerala.

A division bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu dismissed a writ appeal preferred by senior advocate VK Beeran Sahib against the dismissal of his writ petition by the single bench.

The sole contention in the writ petition appears to be that the apex court order that permitted all those 6,44,768 ‘advocates’ who have submitted their application forms along with the law degrees for verification be enrolled and be shown in the electoral list does not include senior advocates.

In November, the Supreme Court had permitted advocates who have submitted their application for verification in Form ‘A’ of the Bar Council Place and Certificate of Practice (Verification) Rules of 2015, together with their law degrees to the respective State Bar Councils, to get their names incorporated in the electoral rolls for the purpose of contesting as well as voting in the state bar council elections.

Perusing the said order, the bench said: “A reading of the above order shows that taking note of the fact that, according to the Bar Council of India, only 6,44,768 advocates had submitted their forms for verification, the Apex Court had modified its earlier order dated 23.8.2017 and directed that all those 6,44,768 advocates who have submitted their application forms along with the Law Degrees for verification be enrolled and be shown in the electoral list.”

The court then observed that the order does not make any distinction between senior advocates and other advocates. “It is the case of the appellant that the order does not include Senior advocates and that therefore, restriction in the number of advocates imposed by the Apex Court cannot be relied on to exclude him from the final electoral list. According to us, the contention urged by the appellant calls for interpretation of the order passed by the Apex Court. Such an exercise can be undertaken only by the Apex Court and not by the High Court,” said the bench holding that it cannot interfere with the matter on the ground of lack of jurisdiction.